Allicock, Amsterdam and Lewis for South American Games

Sep 06, 2022 Sports

(L-R) Desmond Amsterdam, Keevin Allicock and Colin Lewis will be representing Guyana at the 2022 South American Games in Paraguay. (Rawle Toney photo)

Kaieteur News
By Rawle Toney

The Guyana Boxing Association (GBA) has named Olympian Keevin Allicock, Collin Lewis and Desmond Amsterdam as the country’s representatives at the October 1 – 15 South American Games in Paraguay.

Steve Ninvalle, GBA president, told Kaieteur News yesterday that with the trio only recently returning from representing Guyana at this year’s Commonwealth Games in England with considerable success, he’s expecting the local pugilists to do well in the city of Asunción.

Allicock will fight in the featherweight division, while Amsterdam will step into the ring in the Middleweight category. Lewis is set to compete with the other Welterweights.

Both Allicock and Amsterdam suffered ‘head-scratching’ decisions in the Quarter-Finals of their respective decisions in Birmingham and will be hoping to use the South American Games to make amends.

“I think we had a good showing at the Commonwealth Games and we see the South American Games as a new challenge. The South American Games has its own unique toughness,” Ninvalle said.
According to Ninvalle, the GBA is “Happy that we have this continuous international exposure. The South American Games will not be the last international games for the year.”

Amsterdam had the GBA’s highlight so far this year, when he became the first Guyanese to win a medal (bronze) at the Americas Boxing Confederation (AMBC) Elite Championship.

Meanwhile, Ninvalle is urging the boxers to be committed to training, telling Kaieteur News, “We need boxers to make good use of the training. We have them working with Cuban Coach, Francisco Roldan so we want them to exploit what the Cuban coach is offering.”

“We (GBA) can’t make them go to the gym, they have to want to be there and make the effort to turn-up to training,” Ninvalle reasoned.

As it relates to the coaching staff, Ninvalle explained that the International Boxing Association (IBA) rules allows for at least one Three Star coach in a boxers’ corner. Sebert Blake and Terrence Poole are the only two coaches in Guyana with Three Star certification.

“We’re hoping to have three people in the corner. We had two coaches at the Commonwealth Games and based on their reports, it is important that we have three coaches. You can win or lose by having more than one coach in the corner,” Ninvalle said.

At the 2018 South American Games in Bolivia, Allicock (bantamweight) and Lewis (light welterweight) fought their way to bronze.

The 2022 edition of multi-sport event will see Curacao, Aruba and Panama joining the 12 independent countries in South America.

French Guiana, the only department/territory on the South American continent, will not be present at the games.

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